Reid invokes “nuclear option” to get Obama nominees approved

The Senate has officially
voted, 52 to 48, to prevent the minority party from using a filibuster to block
judicial and executive branch nominees except for those nominated to the
Supreme Court.

Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., put the rule to a vote Thursday morning.
Known as the “nuclear
option,” the procedural maneuver allows the majority party to change
the Senate rules with a 51-person vote, in this case used to make it more difficult for the minority
party to block certain nominees with a filibuster.

President Obama made a rare appearance in the White House briefing room to signal his support after the change was made, saying it was necessary for him to carry out his constitutional responsibilities.

"This isn’t obstruction on substance, on qualifications, it's just to gum up the works. And this gridlock in Congress causes gridlock in
much of our criminal and civil justice systems," Mr. Obama said.

He added that neither party was "blameless" in a conflict that has developed over several years. "But today’s
pattern of obstruction, it just isn't normal," he said. " It isn't what our founders
envisioned."

Mr. Obama in fact opposed a rules change in 2005, saying in a speech at the time, "If the majority chooses to end the filibuster, if they choose to change the rules and put an end to democratic debate, then the fighting and the gridlock and the bitterness will only get worse."

Reid has threatened several
times in recent years to change the rules in the face of Republican opposition,
but each time was able
to reach a deal to avert the standoff.

Not
so this time. In recent weeks, Republicans have blocked several of the
president’s nominees, including Rep. Melvin Watt, D-N.C., to head the Federal
Housing Finance Agency, and four nominees to the U.S. Court of Appeals for
the District of Columbia Circuit, prompting an outcry from Reid.

“We declared we’re on the side of the problem solvers,” Reid
said after the Senate had officially passed the rule change. “The changes that
we made today will apply equally to both parties. When Republicans are in power
these changes will apply to them as well. Its simple fairness.”

That’s not how Senate Minority Leader Mitch
McConnell, R-Ky., saw it. He told reporters the move ”was nothing more than a
power grab in order to try to advance the Obama Administration’s regulatory
agenda.”

Asked what the Republicans
would do in response, he said, “I don’t think it’s time to be talking about
reprisals. I think it’s a time to be sad about what’s happened to the United
States Senate.”

Reid
believed Thursday morning he had the votes necessary to change the Senate rules
such that Republicans would no longer be able to use the filibuster to bock
judicial and executive branch nominees. The new vote threshold for those
nominees is 51, a simple Senate majority that represents less than the
Democrats’ 55-seat majority (a figure that includes the Senate’s two
independents, who usually caucus with the Democrats). Previously the nominees
typically required 60 votes in their favor to overcome a potential filibuster.

“The
consistent and unprecedented obstruction by the Republican caucus has turned
‘advise and consent’ to ‘deny and obstruct’,” he said on the Senate floor ahead
of the vote. “It’s time to get the Senate working again, not for the good of
the current Democratic majority or some future Republican majority but for the
good of the United States of America.”

The
vote Thursday came in the waning hours before the Senate leaves for their
Thanksgiving recess. As a last-minute test, Reid put forth the nomination of
Patricia Millet to be a U.S. Circuit Judge for the District of Columbia
Circuit one more time to see if Republicans would still block the
nominations even with the threat of the nuclear option on the horizon. The
nomination failed by a vote of 57 to 40, but after the rules were changed lawmakers were able to advance her nomination with a vote of 55 to 43 with two abstentions.

Speaking before the
vote Thursday morning, McConnell, sought to tie the Democrats’ attempted rule
change to the troubled rollout of the Affordable Care Act,
arguing that Democrats were concocting “a fake fight over judges that aren’t
even needed” in order to distract from the rollout.

He
also scolded Democratic lawmakers who have been in the Senate before while
Democrats were in the minority. “You should know better,” he said.